Life throws curveballs and I can’t hit them. I can’t hit the fastballs either, but this isn’t a scouting report, it’s a (trite) analogy. I was all set for a day of peace and production. The coworkers were to be away at an all-day conference. Not me. Ever read Orwell’s Animal Farm? I’m the horse. Before you cry me a river or before I break my altruistic arm patting myself on my beneficent back, just know that today was to be different. I was to remain at work and still remain the horse but I was planning to be the horsehaving a beer- during my down time, which worked out to be at 10am. It was to be so touchingly beautiful, like Mr. Ed at his very own mini-kegger. As the morning progressed, the goose bumps rose every time I thought about how the magic hour was soon approaching. Beer. Morning. Beer. To my great despair, a small number of my compatriots also opted to punt on the conference. They showed up to work at like 9:45, RIGHT BEFORE MY APPOINTED BEER TIME. (Full disclosure, we keep ale in the cooler at work and the infrequent afternoon beer is acceptable. Brazenly pounding a cold one at your desk at 10am would clearly have raised a few eyebrows.) Oh WILLLBURRR!

Chili spaghetti sauce is today’s chili du jour. (Yep, the redundancy is purposefully intentional, aiming to be repetitive). As the idiot squirrels have destroyed most of my large tomatoes (indeed, another curveball in a day full of benders), I was forced to use a very motley crew of little tomatoes to round out my made-from scratch sauce. Check out the little tiny ones, they’re called spoon tomatoes and they are cute as a lycopene-laden button.

Ingredients:

9 oz garden fresh tomatoes, cut the larger ones

1/3 C diced sweet red peppers

1/3 C diced carrots

¼ C diced white onion

3 cloves of garlic

2 t chili powder

1 t minced chipotle pepper

½ t coriander

Directions:

Mix ingredients in a pot and simmer for 30 minutes, breaking up any large chunks.

Serve over cooked noodles.

Grow in the yard, rescued from mad squirrels, yummy.

Motley Crew Homemade Chili Spaghetti Sauce

Tasting Notes:

Here was today’s point/counter point:

Mrs. Chili365: It needs a little salt.

Chili365: No, it doesn’t.

Eloquent and passionate. That’s the way we roll in these parts.

The sauce was seriously good. The incredible flavor of fresh tomatoes was the most evident feature of this sauce. That was the intention and I was delighted that something went according to Hoyle today.

Was there chili flavor?

Yep, it was balanced and even but it did not trump the tomatoes.

This, THIS, was the answer that I’d endorse.

A final note for anyone following the impending beer-tragedy. I did have beer. I waited until afternoon (then had TWO).